(San Bruno, CA) – The video sharing Internet site YouTube is reporting that at least 60 million viewers skipped watching the Superbowl LI halftime show, featuring Lady Gaga, and instead streamed the 2009 Superbowl XLIII halftime show featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

YouTube servers were hard pressed to keep up with the demand for the Springsteen video, and had to cut off viewer access to cat videos and police body cam videos, while also re-dedicating thousands of data center servers in order to keep up with viewer demand.

“It happens every year,” said YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. “There has been an insatiable demand for that one Springsteen video during every subsequent Superbowl halftime.”

Bruce Springsteen reportedly owns sole rights to the video, and lines up a series of new advertisers each year to replace the outdated ads from the original 2009 performance. Sources close to Springsteen have reported that it costs advertisers $2 million for each thirty second ad during the video, which is a bargain compared to the average $4.5 million that advertisers pay for ads during the actual Superbowl broadcast. This year’s video had 20 thirty second ads, giving The Boss a total of $40 million in ad revenue. In addition, it is estimated that Springsteen received $250,000 from YouTube’s ad monetisation program.

“It stinks,” Lady Gaga yelled as our correspondent asked for her opinion. “I didn’t get paid a dime for my performance. In fact, the NFL required me to pay for my own lighting and charged me cleanup fees afterwards. Do you know how much I paid those backup singers? And those costumes! Ugh! It also wasn’t cheep to pay off all of those decoy cheering fans, either. As if I really need to do something like that!” It is NFL policy to not pay halftime show performers, except for those with good business sense. 

Because most of the live attendees were standing in line for the restrooms during halftime, only about 5,000 spectators were able to hear the concert, and only the small number who brought opera glasses were able to see anything more than a blur of activity on the field. Fifteen minutes after the end of the show, numerous spectators had already complained to the stadium management about the unacceptable delay in starting the performance.

“I didn’t even realize the concert had happened until the players got back on the field,” said Don George of Omaha Nebraska. “And I’m a big fan of the royal family, so I’m pretty disappointed that I missed it.”

Meanwhile, all of the stadium’s interior and exterior video screens were showing the YouTube Bruce Springsteen video. 

“We really enjoyed it,” Barbara Bush later told her neighbors. “George and I are yuge fans. Bruce is truly an American icon, and a national treasure.”